“In this book you will see a city, which was capital to empires during its poorest days. Once there was greatness and glory as in the drawings of Melchior Lorichs. The Ottoman naval defeat at Lepanto in 1571 or for some other people the failure of the second siege of Vienna in 1683 was the beginning of the decline. The Empire was effectively ended by the World War I (WWI) and those concerned were not able to preserve the city in the appropriate form it deserved. I purchased the album containing these pictures a decade ago. It is understood that an mysterious French Officer who came to Constantinople during the occupation of the city by Allied Forces at the end of WWI in 1918. He took photographs of buildings and people capturing interesting scenes from social life documented the need for extensive restoration of the old city.”